@TechnoSyndrome: The systems are solid but everything else is really forgettable. I couldn't tell you any of the characters or the story or music or levels. Sliding around was real fun but it wasn't a cohesive package.
I think everyone's fascination with Platnium games is weird. They've fallen off the wagon a long time ago. The only two decent things they've ever put out are Bayonetta and Metal Gear Rising.
@amyggen: Still don't feel all that bad for them. As an independent contractor you can get as much work as you can find and there is plenty of it to be found.
The problem with wanting better conditions for artists, programmers, producers, designers, and everyone else in the game dev trenches is that for guys on the software side of things don't have a union in place at all. It would also take YEARS for them to even get one started much more to even be in a position to start making demands. Voice actors had it relatively easily by piggy backing on SAG. Computer professional in many instances can't even get overtime pay due to federal law (IIRC).
I can pretty much support everyone except the large AAA publishers in this fight.
^ This. Once one group gets a bigger piece of the pie everyone is going to want one and its going to make the cost of video game development skyrocket.
I'm not sure if that needs to be a bad thing. If working conditions today sucks and that's the reason for development costs being lower than they should be, I'd rather people making the games get what they deserve and pay a bit more on my end. Or maybe it'll push the industry to not have their budgets go out of control like they seem to do for AAA games right now.
Thing is the voice actors are out here complaining when I think the people in the trenches doing the heavy lifting are the ones who are really getting fucked over in most cases. VO talent are independent contractors. They can go wherever they can get work. The programmers the artists ect on a game are stuck doing one project and then they have to hope to god that sells and they don't get laid off because the company has to cut costs. I don't know that I feel bad for the VO talent at all. Its everyone else working on the projects that are going to suffer because they don't have a union to protect them. And what is the first thing companies look to chop when they need to cut costs? Wages.
And if the voice talent gets paid more they are either going to cut wages or downsize portions of the teams and cut jobs entirely to compensate.
@fobwashed: Well that's the thing really most stuff like that isn't fun to watch from a viewers perspective. Its only when you have personal investment and contribution to it that its something that becomes fun.
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